"Anyone who wants to dig a well without a Hughes bit can always use a pick and shovel."
So said Howard Hughes Sr. who, in popular culture, is best known as the father of the eccentric film producer, industrialist, and aviation pioneer, who long suffered from psychiatric illness and once "didst protest too much" saying, "I'm not a paranoid millionaire."
But this favorite son would have not been the beneficiary of a huge fortune were it not for the creativity, derring-do, and forward thinking of his father.
Hughes Sr. (hereafter, Hughes) revolutionized arguably the most important part of the oil and gas business: the method of getting the oil from the ground. This requires more than a pick and shovel, and Hughes knew it.
Howard Hughes Sr; Source: lmathieu.wordpress.com
From Studying Law To Founding A Business
Hughes was born on September 9, 1869, in Lancaster, Missouri. He entered Harvard University in 1893 and two years later began studying law at the University of Iowa College of Law. Although he did not receive his law degree, he began practicing with his father in Keokuk.
He moved to Houston, Texas, around the turn of the century, in an effort to chase the opportunities presented by the January 1901 Spindletop discovery near Beaumont.
In 1902, he started a drilling company in partnership with Walter Sharp. Hughes experienced the same frustration as practically everyone else who was searching for oil at the time: namely, getting holes through underground rock formations.
This was a problem because the drill bit being used then was a sharp-edged, flat piece of metal called a fishtail, which scraped its way through the rock and corroded very quickly.
A Revolutionary Innovation
In 1906, Hughes began developing the idea of a bit comprised of two toothy, rotating steel cones that could pulverize the rock.
Hughes' dual-cone rotary drill bit revolutionized the oil and gas drilling industry; Source: ASME
Hughes tested his drill bit in 1909 at Goose Creek in Texas' Galveston Bay. The day began with Hughes packing his secret invention in the trunk of his car. It ended with a crew of workers being awed after Hughes showed off his new creation.
The Sharp-Hughes Rock Bit penetrated 14 feet of hard rock which no prior equipment had been able to penetrate at all.
A Hughes Tool biography says that Hughes "drilled fourteen feet of hard rock in eleven hours, brought in a well, and thus discovered the Goose Creek field, which became one of the greatest oil fields in the Gulf Coast region."
The "Crucial Tool"
On August 10, 1909, he secured patents for his dual-cone rotary drill bit.
Upon securing the patent, Hughes immediately left the drilling business and started up the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company.
Hughes' two-cone rotary drill bit pulverized medium and hard rock with ten times the speed of any previous bit. Its development soon revolutionized oil well drilling.
It became the crucial tool for tapping deep, vast oilfields, first in the U.S. Gulf Coast and then worldwide.
Today, roller-cone drill bits used worldwide still rely on the design principles introduced by the Hughes two-cone drill bit.
Upon Sharp's death in 1912, Hughes bought his half of the business. In 1915, the company was incorporated in Texas and became the Hughes Tool Company.
Source: ASME
By 1914, the dual-cone roller bit was used in eleven states and in thirteen foreign countries.
Patent, After Patent, After Patent
During the rest of the decade and into the early 1920s, Hughes was granted a total of 73 patents for his inventions connected to rotary drilling.
The reason for Hughes success at the time can be stated simply: Everyone who drills an oil well desires the best possible drill bit. And operating a rig is very expensive, so the better the bit, the more rapidly it goes.
Eccentric Son Is The Beneficiary Of A Father's Drilling Legacy
After Hughes' death in 1924, his eccentric 18-year old son inherited the company. Legend has it that Howard Jr. only visited the Hughes Tool office once in his life, the rest of whose days would be marked by an accumulation of fame and wealth and the ultimate dissolution of his mind.
But the business his father founded lived on- and prospered.
In 1933, two engineers with Hughes invented the tricone bit, which drilled holes faster and straighter. For the 17 years that the patent on it was in effect, from 1934 to 1951, Hughes Tool's market share neared 100%.
Nearly all the oil discovered during the glory days of wildcatting was found using the Hughes drill bit. Howard Jr became the richest man in the world as a consequence of the enormous success of the company his father founded and built up.
One of the last known photographs of Howard Hughes, Jr.; Source: glenwj.wordpress.com
Hughes Tools + Baker International = BHI
In 1972, Hughes Junior took the company public and, on the day it went on sale, made $150 million.
Finally, in 1987, Hughes Tools merged with Baker International to form Baker Hughes International, which is today the third largest oilfield services company in the world, behind Schlumberger and Halliburton.
To a large degree, dozens of movies, the building of large portions of Las Vegas, the building of the world's largest airplane, and, most importantly, oil drilling as we know it today, were made possible because of Hughes Tool's revolutionary drill bit- and the creative mind that spud the idea.
So said Howard Hughes Sr. who, in popular culture, is best known as the father of the eccentric film producer, industrialist, and aviation pioneer, who long suffered from psychiatric illness and once "didst protest too much" saying, "I'm not a paranoid millionaire."
But this favorite son would have not been the beneficiary of a huge fortune were it not for the creativity, derring-do, and forward thinking of his father.
Hughes Sr. (hereafter, Hughes) revolutionized arguably the most important part of the oil and gas business: the method of getting the oil from the ground. This requires more than a pick and shovel, and Hughes knew it.
Howard Hughes Sr; Source: lmathieu.wordpress.com
From Studying Law To Founding A Business
Hughes was born on September 9, 1869, in Lancaster, Missouri. He entered Harvard University in 1893 and two years later began studying law at the University of Iowa College of Law. Although he did not receive his law degree, he began practicing with his father in Keokuk.
He moved to Houston, Texas, around the turn of the century, in an effort to chase the opportunities presented by the January 1901 Spindletop discovery near Beaumont.
In 1902, he started a drilling company in partnership with Walter Sharp. Hughes experienced the same frustration as practically everyone else who was searching for oil at the time: namely, getting holes through underground rock formations.
This was a problem because the drill bit being used then was a sharp-edged, flat piece of metal called a fishtail, which scraped its way through the rock and corroded very quickly.
A Revolutionary Innovation
In 1906, Hughes began developing the idea of a bit comprised of two toothy, rotating steel cones that could pulverize the rock.
Hughes' dual-cone rotary drill bit revolutionized the oil and gas drilling industry; Source: ASME
Hughes tested his drill bit in 1909 at Goose Creek in Texas' Galveston Bay. The day began with Hughes packing his secret invention in the trunk of his car. It ended with a crew of workers being awed after Hughes showed off his new creation.
The Sharp-Hughes Rock Bit penetrated 14 feet of hard rock which no prior equipment had been able to penetrate at all.
A Hughes Tool biography says that Hughes "drilled fourteen feet of hard rock in eleven hours, brought in a well, and thus discovered the Goose Creek field, which became one of the greatest oil fields in the Gulf Coast region."
The "Crucial Tool"
On August 10, 1909, he secured patents for his dual-cone rotary drill bit.
Upon securing the patent, Hughes immediately left the drilling business and started up the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company.
Hughes' two-cone rotary drill bit pulverized medium and hard rock with ten times the speed of any previous bit. Its development soon revolutionized oil well drilling.
It became the crucial tool for tapping deep, vast oilfields, first in the U.S. Gulf Coast and then worldwide.
Today, roller-cone drill bits used worldwide still rely on the design principles introduced by the Hughes two-cone drill bit.
Upon Sharp's death in 1912, Hughes bought his half of the business. In 1915, the company was incorporated in Texas and became the Hughes Tool Company.
Source: ASME
By 1914, the dual-cone roller bit was used in eleven states and in thirteen foreign countries.
Patent, After Patent, After Patent
During the rest of the decade and into the early 1920s, Hughes was granted a total of 73 patents for his inventions connected to rotary drilling.
The reason for Hughes success at the time can be stated simply: Everyone who drills an oil well desires the best possible drill bit. And operating a rig is very expensive, so the better the bit, the more rapidly it goes.
Eccentric Son Is The Beneficiary Of A Father's Drilling Legacy
After Hughes' death in 1924, his eccentric 18-year old son inherited the company. Legend has it that Howard Jr. only visited the Hughes Tool office once in his life, the rest of whose days would be marked by an accumulation of fame and wealth and the ultimate dissolution of his mind.
But the business his father founded lived on- and prospered.
In 1933, two engineers with Hughes invented the tricone bit, which drilled holes faster and straighter. For the 17 years that the patent on it was in effect, from 1934 to 1951, Hughes Tool's market share neared 100%.
Nearly all the oil discovered during the glory days of wildcatting was found using the Hughes drill bit. Howard Jr became the richest man in the world as a consequence of the enormous success of the company his father founded and built up.
One of the last known photographs of Howard Hughes, Jr.; Source: glenwj.wordpress.com
Hughes Tools + Baker International = BHI
In 1972, Hughes Junior took the company public and, on the day it went on sale, made $150 million.
Finally, in 1987, Hughes Tools merged with Baker International to form Baker Hughes International, which is today the third largest oilfield services company in the world, behind Schlumberger and Halliburton.
To a large degree, dozens of movies, the building of large portions of Las Vegas, the building of the world's largest airplane, and, most importantly, oil drilling as we know it today, were made possible because of Hughes Tool's revolutionary drill bit- and the creative mind that spud the idea.